LGBT Ring of Fire

So I don't know if anyone here was reading about the Sundance film festival, or if anyone follows boxing, but USA Networks bought the rights this weekend to a Sundance documentary called "Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story." There was an interesting article about this movie in the NY Times last week. Apparently, Griffith was rumored to be gay, and was "outed" by his opponent before a nationally televised fight in the 60's. Griffith ended up beating up the guy so bad he went into a coma and died, which led to them taking boxing off TV for like 10 years. I don't think Griffith ever admitted publicly that he was gay, but the article made it sound like the movie tackles a lot of topics including homosexuality and the macho culture of professional sports.

I'm too young to know about the actual boxing match, but does anyone know more of the history behind this or know anything more about the documentary?

How long do you think it will be before they'll be an openly gay athlete in one of the 4 or 5 major American sports?

"Here in the United States, there are over 4,000 athletes who play in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and major league baseball. None of them are openly gay. That clashes with the often-stated figure that five to 10 percent of the general population is homosexual."

"While statistics rule in sports, the actual number of gay athletes is impossible to determine. Dave Pallone, a former National League umpire for 10 years, has been openly homosexual since 1988. He says he knows more than 15 current professional athletes that are gay."

Thanks for those links, I hadn't seen any reviews of it yet, just read about it in NY Times. It is pretty crazy that there are no openly gay athletes in the major sports, this seems to be one of the few areas American of society where there is still really strong hostility toward being out.

I'm definitely interested in this aspect of the story, and I'm also a sports fan, so that side of the story intrigues me as well. I was just shocked I had never heard about this story before, it just seems like there are so many areas of controversy involved in the story.

It is pretty crazy that there are no openly gay athletes in the major sports...

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Interestingly enough, I was watching some figure skating show two night ago --attempting to have a quiet moment with the kids-- and this male 20 year old thing glided out with a flame obviously larger than mine! I was like ! Even his intro video was all about how perfect his hair was, and how much bounce it had (yes, I was a lil green... ). And then there were all of these girls screaming his name and saying they loved him. Clearly, they didn't realize that when he slightly puckered his lips and wink in an overly animated way, it was directed to his boyfriend...not them. And no str8t man wears a pink and grey tight shirt with a sparkling heart split open to expose his chest.